


A Challenge Met

by AceQueenKing



Category: Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
Genre: F/M, Fighting Kink, First Kiss, Lightsaber Battles, Rough Kissing, Sith Traditions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-09
Updated: 2018-09-09
Packaged: 2019-07-07 04:35:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15901017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AceQueenKing/pseuds/AceQueenKing
Summary: What Maul seemed to want, more than anything, was violence.





	A Challenge Met

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DuaeCat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DuaeCat/gifts).



Qi'ras arms ached. The lightsaber in her hands had gone from light to heavy; the novelty of the ancient weapon gone in the indignities of rote memorization. The dampness of the cave they were currently hiding in made her skin clammy. She longed for nothing more than a shower.  She hated everything about this situation; here aching muscles, her raw emotions, her awful surroundings.

But more than anything, she hated her teacher.

Maul's yellow eyes had followed her every moment for hours. No matter how gracefully she moved, it did not please him. 

She pulled her arm forward, shifting into the seventh position. She moved forward, three quick strikes, then forward again. Her hand hit the floor as she moved into a force enhanced flip, dodging phantom blows. Kata finished, she bowed toward Maul.

He stared at her for a moment, no doubt taking in her sweat-slick skin and messy hair. Then he sneered as if she were a child who had just shown him a particularly uninspired picture.

"Pathetic," Maul said. "Again."

She had been repeating the same kata for  _hours_. When Maul had asked her to return, performing complicated sword dances hadn't been what she had imagined her new duties to be.

And yet, with a weary flick of her wrist, Qi'ra obeyed. Power was worth pursuit. She had learned that as a child in the slums, had believed in it too long to turn back now. She leaned into her instincts, summoning the sensation that she had, to some point, always relied on. Evidently, it was called the Force. Had she grown up on any hellhole more notable than Correllia, she would have been killed for it.  Thinking of this, she rolled into the first form, shii-cho. One wide strike, two; she turned. A remote rose to meet her, and she darted over it, turning as she had before to slice it in two as she jumped over it. She hit the wall, bounced forward, and slashed as she moved forward. The remote crumpled.

She glanced toward Maul as she moved into the second form of the kat. He laughed as she shifted her hands into makashi, preparing for a precision-focused strike. Ignoring him, she concentrated on her strike point. Then she drove her saber directly into the center of the remote, deactivating the neutrino zapper that it would unleash seconds later.

She glanced back at him, smirking. Maul snarled. "What are you looking to me, for?" He tossed something toward her, six training bots, all armed with blaster fire. All, judging from the flashing pattern, set to kill.

She rolled her eyes, flipping out of the way. She summoned a spark of lightning to her fingers then let it go, frying all six.

She deactivated the saber and turned toward him, expecting praise. Sith were nothing if not enterprising. He had offered a problem, she had come up with a solution, and a more efficient one than he had given her.

He came off his dais, his face a stormy look of malcontent. She did not drop her saber.

" _What_ was _that_?" He threw the practice droids and she ignited her saber, deflecting each toward him. He took little notice, using the force to send them to the far corners of the room.

"You gave me a problem. I offered a more expedient solution, master." She did not break his gaze, even as he walked all the way over to her. His hand shot out, cupping her chin, as he laughed - soft, but in the still room, it rang loud as thunder.

"Does the  _apprentice_  think she has so readily surpassed the master? I gave you a task and I expect to see it done in the matter dictated to you, student."

"I did it faster," she said, frowning. "Or does the  _master_  not wish to be challenged?" She raised an eyebrow; the closest to rebellion she dared.

For a moment, neither of them breathed; Maul's hands flexed on her chin.

" _You_  wish to  _challenge_?" He laughed. "Already? So.... ambitious."

"Better than hiding under rocks hoping the Emperor and Darth Vader won't peak underneath," she mumbled. Malachor had never been to her taste. Its ugliness is more natural than Corellia, but that made it no less ugly. It was spartan, dusty, and smelled of nothing but death and rot.

"That right?" Maul's face quirked into what could, on someone else, be called a smile. "You think you could take on Vader and the Emperor?"

"Couldn't you?" She smiled, knowing he would take it as a challenge.

"It is not your place to question. If you wish to claim command, you must take it by force."

He lit his saber in open challenge.

She responded to it, reigniting her saber in response. This was her end goal; even if she did not take Maul out now, she would be one step closer to her goals. Qi'ra had long known that power was not something one took in one fell swoop. Rather, power was what one earned, through blood and trial. Power was what you found scraping your knuckles up the mountain until at long, long last, you survived long enough to glimpse its peak.  Part of surviving to reach that peak was learning your opponent well enough to predict how they, too, would attempt to climb.  No opponent, Qi'ra thought, was without their tics. Learn enough of Maul's, and she'd know how to vanquish him.

Weaknesses were what Qi'ra collected. That never changed no matter which masters she had been serving. Lady Proxima had preferred her baubles; Dryden Vos had preferred more carnal offerings.

What Maul seemed to want, more than anything, was  _violence_.

He took a defensive position, waiving a hand lightly as if to say  _bring it_. She tested his defenses, bringing her red saber down on his with a grueling cross. Fiery particles bounced off the crash of the two red lightsabers and bit at hit her fingers. She hissed and persisted in her attack despite the pain, backing off and then returning to the hunt.

Maul let her make the first few challenges, chuckling softly. "Is this all you bring, apprentice? A simple brute force attack? I'd expect better planning, even from a  _worm_. "

"I'm  _no_  worm." Qi'ra snapped her saber up and tried to ignore the blush spreading across her cheeks. She dodged to the side and aimed for a neck hit; he parried it and threw her off.

"Then prove it!" He bellowed, arm tensing as he went on a counter attack. His arm dipped low as his mechanical knees creaked and he went for a sweep. She jumped, using the force to propel her higher.

He brought up his saber to parry, but he was slow. She grinned in triumph as her saber sank into his shoulder; she did not apply enough pressure to do more than surface damage. This was, after all, only a prelude. But she took note that grabbing the high ground was an advantage.

She grinned at him with all the malice she could summon within her. He chuckled.

"A good hit," he conceded. Then, he went on the offensive, unleashing a blistering fury of strikes. Each was precisely aimed at different parts of her core. She parried a chip to her neck, stepped back, almost fell to a shot to her belly. She stepped back and to the side but he cut off her escape route, moving fast in a downward slash. She parried the hit, but barely.

Trying to go on the offensive, she tried to use makashi, aim toward his head. He batted her strike away as if it were a fly. Then he continued his offense, raining blows down on her at a speed that forced her retreat.

She wasn't aware of how many steps she'd lost until she hit the cavern's wall. She tried to slash out at him but he caught her hand, easily disarming her without even using her saber. Unwilling to admit defeat, she attempted to summon lightning. She felt the hot electric heat course from her fingertips and grinned, until she saw Maul's saber. 

Maul batted it from his saber as easily as a kitten tossing away a bit of string. 

"Sloppy. Pathetic. You seek the power but...you cannot taste it. Not quite yet." He dropped her arms, as if to show how little a threat he thought she was.

She stared at him, mouth pursed. She'd lost the duel yes, but she'd learned a great deal as to what she could do to improve her standing next time. And she'd learned a more telling secret about Maul himself. His body language was revealing. He leaned over her, leering with a heat flickering behind his eyes that spoke of more than just battle-lust.

She wrapped a hand delicately across his chin, her fingers digging in just enough to bring pain. He hissed and she pulled him closer; she knew enough of zabraks to know their courting ritual. Qi'ra did not believe in love, but she did believe in power. Qi'ra also knew there was more than one way to hold power over someone. Brute force wasn't everything. Emotions had let her betray both Dryden and Han with little more than a pinch of regret in her heart.

She sealed her attempted seduction with a kiss. It was warm, desperate; she bit at his lips. He growled deeply, his voice slipping into his lower register. So, she did have an effect on him.  Another weakness noted. One of his large hands gripped her neck, his own talons scrambling across her delicate skin as he bit down on her lip. She tasted copper between her lips, and grinned carnally in a victory of her own as he pushed her back against the cold cavern wall.

"Perhaps you hold promise after all, apprentice." He held out his hand with the force, pulling her lightsaber to his side.

She reached out a hand, but he moved it away from her, shaking his head. "You should make the next attempt count apprentice. You will not get another."

"I will." She refused to break eye contact with him as she grabbed her saber, clipping it to her belt. Nor did she look away as she sucked at the cut in her lip he had inflicted, a wanton movement that made him ever so slightly shudder.

"You are dismissed," he said, not bothering to look at her again as he resumed his spot upon his lonely throne. "Begone."

"Yes, master," she said. She did not bother to bow as she left. She rubbed at the cuts he'd inflicted on her neck and smiled. 

Oh yes, this had been merely the beginning. And what an illustrated prelude it had been. 

The next time she came for the king, she had no intention of missing her target.


End file.
